Disney suffers billing glitch

A billing glitch has caused some customers of Disney's Daily Blast, the
popular subscription-based online service for children, to get billed
twice, but executives said they are working to correct the problem.

"Due to a technical error, you were accidentally billed twice," Disney said
in an email message to members, which was received by CNET's NEWS.COM on Saturday.
"You will receive a refund for the overcharged amount on your next credit
card statement. We hope this has not caused an inconvenience and appreciate
your patience."

Disney Online spokeswoman Rebecca Buxton today confirmed the problem. She said it
affected a "small percentage" of the service's customers, but she declined
to say how many. Disney has not disclosed how many total subscribers it has,
either.

Buxton said the company learned about the problem
last week when some customers noticed the double billing on their credit cards,
and assigned a team to fix it.

The billing glitch occurred when an order transmission was sent in late
November to the company's banking partner, FirstUSA. "We were told it was
rejected, so we re-sent it," Buxton said of the transmission. "Although it
looked like it was being rejected, it wasn't."

The company said it has set up a special toll-free number to handle
customer inquiries about the problem.

Such billing problems are unusual, but not unheard of, with
subscription-based online services. Some consumer groups worry that they
can discourage e-commerce. But others point out the same billing problems
occur in the "brick-and-mortar" world.